The cigar industry has enjoyed increasing popularity and growing sales for at least the last two decades. According to the latest data, there are about 13 million cigar smokers in the U.S., and yearly U.S. cigar sales have increased over $8 billion. As such, the growth of the cigar industry has been accompanied by an explosion of various different types, sizes, and flavors of cigars. From large hand-rolled cigars and smaller machine-made cigars to little cigars that are similar in size to cigarettes, there are thousands of different cigar brands and types of cigars commercially available for cigar aficionados. Cigars can also vary greatly in price, from less expensive cigars that cost less than $1 to premium, handmade cigars that range in price from $6 to $30. Consequently, the large variety of items available to the cigar enthusiast can be intimidating to tackle, especially for new entrants to the cigar hobby.
One of the problems that arises for cigar aficionados or novices in the pursuit of the cigar hobby is the ability to distinguish between the large number of brands and types of cigars that are available. Various handbooks exist for cigar enthusiasts to identify or locate certain cigars, but these handbooks can be cumbersome to utilize and become outdated very quickly. Consequently, the cigar aficionado or novice must engage in time consuming research to identify or find a cigar of choice. This increases the time and resources necessary to engage in the cigar hobby. Another problem exhibited by cigar aficionados or novices is the ability to keep track of the different cigars he or she experiences, so as to keep a record of the experience associated with each cigar smoked, thereby honing one's tastes in order to become a connoisseur of cigars. Typically, a cigar aficionado will keep a notebook detailing the experience associated with each cigar smoked. These notebooks, however, can be unwieldy and difficult to use to organize one's notes on cigars. Consequently, many cigar aficionados and novices must rely on shear memory to log their cigar experiences and then recall them at a later time when necessary.
Therefore, a need exists for improvements over the prior art, and more particularly for methods and systems that facilitate the identification and exploration of cigars, as well as the process of logging experiences with cigars.